Henry Laurens DAWES

(1816-1903)

Senate Years of Service:

1875-1893

Party:

Republican

DAWES, Henry Laurens, a
Representative and a Senator from Massachusetts; born in
Cummington, Mass., October 30, 1816; attended the common schools
and received private instruction in preparatory studies; graduated
from Yale College in 1839; became a teacher and edited the
Greenfield Gazette and the North Adams Transcript; studied law;
admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in North Adams,
Mass.; member, State house of representatives 1848-1849, 1852;
member, State senate 1850; member of the State constitutional
convention in 1853; district attorney for the western district of
Massachusetts 1853-1857; elected to the Thirty-fifth and to the
eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1875);
chairman, Committee on Elections (Thirty-seventh through Fortieth
Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Forty-first Congress),
Committee on Ways and Means (Forty-second and Forty-third
Congresses); declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1874;
elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1875;
reelected in 1881 and again in 1887, and served from March 4, 1875,
to March 3, 1893; declined to be a candidate for reelection in
1893; chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds
(Forty-fifth Congress), Committee on Indian Affairs (Forty-seventh
through Fifty-second Congresses); settled in Pittsfield, Mass.;
chairman of the commission created to administer the tribal affairs
of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians in the Indian Territory
1893-1903; died in Pittsfield, Mass., February 5, 1903; interment
in Pittsfield Cemetery.